Hot Topics:

Auditor: Agency used state letterhead to OK severance package

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
01/05/2013 06:32:02 AM EST

By Andy Metzger

Statehouse News Service

BOSTON -- The board of a quasi-public agency whose role had been subsumed by the state itself used state letterhead to authorize an $83,140 severance package for a state executive who had been fired by the state, according to a report from Auditor Suzanne Bump.

The former state official, however, has disputed much of what is contained in the audit, released on Thursday, describing a different situation in which the normal course of business broke down after the state took over the quasi-independent agency.

Board members of the Massachusetts International Trade Council Inc. voted to approve the severance for Edwin "Ted" Carr on June 27, 2011, even though Carr had left his job as executive director at MITCI to take the same job at the newly created Massachusetts International Trade Office, which subsequently fired him. The MITCI board members did not move with Carr to the new state agency and the new state agency had no board, according to Bump's report.

"(Four) of MITCI's board members represented themselves in the minutes of this meeting as board members of MITO. However, under its enabling legislation, MITO does not have a Board of Directors," the audit report said. "As a result, these four members had no legal authority to act on behalf of MITO and could not establish the liability for the severance compensation in question.

Advertisement

"

Carr told the News Service that the transition of the MITCI, which had contracted with the state, into the newly-formed state agency included the non-profit's board, and was supposed to include his severance package. He also said he had no choice but to go along with the move, and said that following the transition there was a breakdown in the agency's funding, which meant that about three months after making the switch to the state agency his salary was still paid by the non-profit.

No taxpayer money was directly spent on Carr's severance. He received $6,346, a small percentage of the authorized payment, from MITCI, according to the board's vote. Carr had left MITCI on his own volition and was fired by a separate state agency, according to the audit.

In addition to the report of Carr's severance package, the auditor found inadequate documentation for $56,207 in staff reimbursements -- mostly to Carr and to Director of Administration Julian Munnich -- and $12,679 in duplicate or unauthorized payments for credit card expenses and staff compensation. Munnich did not respond to a call for comment.

"My integrity and my ethical professional conduct over a 25-year career are deeply important to me. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the severance payment the board granted me and whether changes to the agency structure made it inappropriate," Carr said in a statement to the News Service. "I am happy, even eager to return any expenses improperly reimbursed, though I followed protocols and do not believe any were for anything other than costs incurred by me in promoting [Massachusetts] as a place to do business. I'm disappointed that I was not given the opportunity to do this during the audit process and I don't understand why."

Carr said that neither he nor any members of the board were given the opportunity to give their side of the story for the audit. Bump's press secretary, Chris Thompson, said auditors don't usually contact terminated employees because of their "reliability," and said that the board members were contacted to confirm they had attended the meeting.

The law that subsumed the non-profit into a new state agency said that "all duly existing contracts, leases, assets and obligations" of MITCI "shall continue in effect but shall be assumed" by the newly created state agency. There was no language in the law about reassembling the non-profit's board.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.